海角社区

Speaker: Prof. Jisu Cao
Assistant Professor of Information Systems
W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Time: 2:00 PM, June 26, 2025
Location: Room 419, Economics and Management School

Abstract:

Online forums offer users a virtual space with low costs to exchange rich information with diverse individuals. However, their impact on decision-making remains uncertain—whether they help or harm users depends largely on the representativeness of the information, as online forums can contain misleading or exaggerated content designed to attract attention. In this paper, we examine how consumption of online forum information affects decision makings and their outcomes, with a unique setting of online sports betting—where gamblers' betting decisions are directly linked to financial outcomes and heavily influenced by game information and other gamblers' opinions. We study how information from online forums affects bettors' risk attitudes, gambling behaviors, and financial returns. Our analysis suggests that greater exposure to forum content encourages risk-taking but does not necessarily improve financial outcomes. For every additional post a bettor reads, a bettor's wager amount rises by 7.54%, while net returns decline by 87 cents. Further analyses reveal that the information shared on online forums is biased toward high-risk events–the betting odds shared on forum posts are often much higher than the overall betting odds and therefore are not a fair characterization of how other bettors evaluate gambling risks. Relying on this biased information can potentially skew information seekers' perceptions and lead them to place riskier bets with lower likelihoods of success. We further find that this bias likely stems from the fact that extreme bets attract more attention, motivating forum contributors to post wagers with lower chances of winning.

About the Speaker:

Prof. Jisu Cao serves as an Assistant Professor in the Information Systems Department at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business. Specializing in the intersection of technology and society, her research explores critical issues in AI ethics, digital platform governance, and social media dynamics. Her studies have appeared in top-tier publications such as Management Science and MIS Quarterly, establishing her as a rising star in her field. Among her numerous honors are the prestigious ICIS Best Theme Paper (2018) and AOM Best Paper (2025) awards, recognizing her innovative contributions to information systems research.